If you think .410 is humbling enough try it with steel #7s. Last night I was able to coax a few competent shooters into trying their hand using a "skeeters" sub-gauge in IC.

With a pellet count of 140, weighing in at 1/3oz, the little pop-gun was able to break birds cleanly in knowledgeable hands. Our 1st time out, the reloading was not quite perfect as we had a few pops & fizzles.

Biggest obstacle was getting the steel to drop in the Grabber - not many options as in 12 gauge reloading, so it may come to using dippers and funnel.

Talk was we might hold a .410 tourney just to keep us grounded! We'll keep you informed of our progress.

Our range has the dubious distinction of having the 1st USEPA NPDES permit to allow discharging a pollutant into Waters of the US. Not twisted, we're required to use non-toxic ammo and we chose to use steel because it is easy to manage and is the most cost-effective alternative shot material.

When I decided (like the other day) to just shoot .410, my methodology was similar to that used in working with 12/20 gauge ammo. Take the lightest lead recipe I could find and swap in steel. Extensive pressure testing in 12 gauge showed super low pressue, but barrels exhibit clean burning properties.

A long time loader, had some 2400 and we loaded 13gr and hand loaded shot to the lip of the wad petals (1/3 oz), using a winchester 209 primer on older AA hull - that's the secret recipe. In spite of some loader problems, we managed to load a dozen test shells and off they went (some better than others) but most broke targets (the pops and fizzles I take the blame for!).

After a dozen shells, I didn;t see any scaring, but I will guess we're getting some perforation of the wad and will try to harvest a few for examination. In my mind, I'm not shooting valuable guns and by the time wear might become an issue, I'll either be an old man or have saved my pennies to by a new gun!

I'd rather shoot than not shoot and have some interesting fun while doing it.
Jay